Moldova’s Constitutional Court Judges Resign Over ‘Political Bias’

The Constitutional Court judges resigned on Wednesday after the new government led by Prime Minister Maia Sandu asked them to quit, accusing them of biased rulings in favour of the former governing Democrat Party led by oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc.

"The judges of the Constitutional Court have all resigned. The cessation of their mandates and the vacancy of the positions on the Constitutional Court will be announced to the relevant authorities in order to appoint new judges," the court said in a press release.

Sandu welcomed the judges' decision.

"The resignation of the judges from the Constitutional Court is the only possible action that could be taken by someone who has discredited the image of the institution, they have shamed Moldova abroad and mocked its citizens and the constitution," she said.

President Igor Dodon said that the mass resignation "was the only reasonable decision in the current situation, but also a long-awaited one, not only at the national level".

From June 7 to June 9, the Constitutional Court judges issued several controversial rulings, cancelling the newly-formed parliamentary majority made up of the pro-European bloc ACUM and Dodon's pro-Russian Socialists, the PSRM.

The court decreed that the term of the parliament elected on February 24 had expired, and that therefore the PSRM-ACUM majority was not legally able to form a government.

Plahotniuc's Democrat Party had refused to recognise the new government and insisted that Pavel Filip, who was prime minister until the election, was still in power.

The Constitutional Court rulings triggered strong criticism in Moldova and abroad, and raised political tensions, with supporters of the parties involved threatening to take to the streets of...

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